Wizarding World of Harry Potter Will Get A Nighttime Show

Taking a page out of Disney’s theme park playbook, it sounds like Universal Studios is looking to beef up the attractions at The Wziarding World of Harry Potter.

A new report indicates that Universal is developing a nighttime show that will take place within The Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Much like the nighttime spectacular shows at Disney theme parks, they will be using projection mapping to project a visual spectacular on the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry castle.

Find out more about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter nighttime show after the jump.

Orlando Informer has word that Universal is currently working on the nighttime show that will debut sometime in the first half of 2017. While details on the specifics of the show are slim, the site says the nighttime show will be something akin to the opening night celebrations for the opening of the Hogsmade sections of the park in Orlando and California. The show will be projected onto Hogwarts castle, not unlike this show from The Magic Kingdom using Frozen imagery and music:

As for what will be projected onto Hogwarts, with eight films in the Harry Potter film franchise, it would be hard to create some kind of show using clips from the movies as a sort of movie trailer mash-up with various cinematic moments from the movies combined with the signature Harry Potter themes.

One of the more interesting details about this Harry Potter nighttime show is that there may not be a set schedule for fans to be able to plan ahead when they want to see it. The area of Hogsmeade where this show would take place doesn’t fit anywhere near the amount of people that Disney’s area surrounding their castle can hold, which would make a schedule a bit of a mess with so many people crowding the area as showtime approaches. Therefore Universal is thinking about having a randomized schedule with several performances each night, not unlike the Tree of Life Awakenings visual show at Animal Kingdom.

There is also discussion of doing some special shows around holidays like Halloween and Christmas, though there aren’t any details regarding what that might entail at this time. Projecting snow onto Hogwarts would be a nice touch during the holiday months at the end of the year though.

If you don’t entirely buy this rumor, check out this recent change in park landscaping:

As you can see, a whole slew of trees from the front of the Hogwarts castle have been chopped down. This will allows more space for projection, and more space for fans to be able to see the show projected on the castle without trees getting in the way. As we said, the show will be something akin to what happened during the grand opening of the new section of the park, and if you haven’t see what that was like, here’s a video of the event:

This looks like it’ll a cool addition to the park for fans looking for a little more Harry Potter magic.